This year was our first Christmas in our new home... our first single family home to ever live in, let alone own! Since being married for 7 years, my husband and I, and eventually our two sons, have moved 5 times. We live within the city, and of course city living is a bit more expensive than the suburbs, even without getting extra space. On top of that we live on a modest income. We are not in need, but not in excess either. So buying a home was never really on the radar... it was more of a pipe dream for sure! Especially since we wanted to live in the city, and know that it costs more. So we've rented for the last 7 years. And with renting there is always something you don't like about the space (or lack of space). Thus, we moved almost every year. This was also a result of adding members to our family.
Last year we were blessed enough to be able to buy my husband's Aunt's home, located in an up and coming (and old and charming!) neighborhood just miles from downtown. The home was also my husband's grandparent's home before they passed away, and the house his mother lived in for the latter part of her childhood. It really is special that we now get to raise our boys here, with so much family history all around. One day I will post all about the house, and the renovations and transformation it went through. I really have to get my photos together for that post!
But anyways... today I will post about our first Christmas in our house. As I was saying, we never lived in a single family home, so I didn't have any decorations for outside! I knew what I wanted to do to decorate, but quickly realized that I could easily spend a fortune on beautiful wreaths and pre-lit garland! I set out to find a way to get what I wanted for cheap.
I found these plain wreaths at Wal Mart for $3 each. I got three of them for three of our front windows, and one larger $4 wreath for our door. They are the wiry kind where you can fluff up the sprigs and adjust how you want.
A trip to a local park allowed me to pick up all the pine cones I desired for my project, and I saved about $10... store bought pine cones... so silly.
I bought Epsom Salt in "mint eucalyptus", I think, for the fake snow and sparkle on my pine cones. It smelled really good while coming in the door all season. All I had to do was put some mod podge (or any liquid glue) on the pine cones, roll the cones in the salt, and let dry before hot gluing onto the wreath. I already had the glue, and the salt was about $4, but I was able to do all the wreaths, and have some left for baths.
Here is the finished wreath, before I made bows and hung them. I really apologize for my very busy, very tacky table cloth! I am going to start taking better pictures now that I know I'll be posting more of my projects!
I also took some cheap plain garland and bought lights for them, and made my own "pre-lit" garland for a fraction of the cost (not pictured). The garland had the same wiry sprigs so I used those to secure the lights, and packed them up all still together, as if they were always meant to be together.
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